Another Day, Another Specialist

After Addison’s stay in the PICU in December, we finally got a consult to a pulmonary (lung) doctor. (Hey, it only took four hospital stays in nine months). They got us an appointment for the middle of January. I did like the doctor a lot. While she agreed with us that Addison’s breathing was abnormal, she did not think it was her lungs that were the problem. Her oxygen saturation, chest x-rays, and lab work are good. Basically, she said she manages to compensate for whatever is going on. She said we needed to see an ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat) doctor. (Not a surprise for me). At first, she wanted us to go to Cincinnati and see the ENT’s there because they are supposed to be the best in the country. However, she decided to do a soft tissue x-ray of Addison’s neck first. She said it was a good starting point and it might show us something. It did. The x-ray showed that she doesn’t have a lot of air moving though her trachea. They thought it was likely that her adenoids were enlarged and blocking air movement. Since it seemed to be something fairly simple, we decided to see the ENT’s at Akron Children’s. I was happy to be able to get her an appointment within a week and we saw the ENT a couple of weeks ago. He said that her adenoids are very enlarged, to the point that they are probably completely blocking her nose and forcing her to breathe through her mouth and causing the snoring sound that she always makes. Her tonsils look fine, so she just needs to have her adenoids removed. Unfortunately, we have to wait three months, as the first available date for surgery is April 28th. At least we have some answers and the process is finally started. I’m hopeful that this will help her breathing a lot. I’m hopeful that if she can get more air in and breathe easier at baseline, then when she gets sick, it won’t be such a big deal. Hopefully in the future, a cold won’t mean a hospital stay and time in the ICU. Hopefully, with her breathing being less of an issue, she will simply feel better on a daily basis and do better with all her therapies. I feel as if her breathing has gotten worse over the past month or so and that it is really affecting her energy level and her sleep. This surgery cannot come soon enough for me. I am optimistic that it will make a huge impact on Addi’s everyday life.